Airport security is being increased at British airports after the United States called for heightened precautions amid reports two terror networks are working together on a bomb that could evade existing measures.

The Department for Transport said the extra measures - which have not been disclosed - were not expected to cause “significant disruption” to passengers and noted that the official UK threat status remained unchanged.

Changes were announced after Washington Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson ordered beefed up security at foreign airports from where aircraft fly directly to the US.

Labour plans body for big projects

Labour will establish an independent National Infrastructure Commission if it returns to power, with the aim of ending a culture of “chronic short-termism” which Ed Miliband believes has left the UK lagging behind in areas like power generation, communications and transport links.

In a speech today, Mr Miliband will call for cross-party consensus on a system of long-term infrastructure planning and decision-making to ensure that Britain is equipped for success and businesses are able to plan for the future.

Former London Olympics supremo Sir John Armitt will publish draft legislation to set up the Commission, which was the key recommendation of his review of the country’s infrastructure needs for Labour last year.

PM urges No supporters to speak up

The Prime Minister will today call on the “silent majority” of Scots who support the UK to make their voices heard in the run up to the independence referendum.

David Cameron is travelling to Scotland to again make the case for the country remaining in the United Kingdom.

Voters north of the border will decide the future of the union when they vote in September’s independence referendum.

National probe into child sex abuse

The Children’s Commissioner is launching a national inquiry into child sexual abuse.

The two-year inquiry will look at sexual abuse within the family environment including forced marriages since this often leads to child sex abuse.

Long-term conditions costs to soar

The cash-strapped NHS may need to find an additional £4 billion every year to care for people with long-term conditions, MPs have warned.

The Health Select Committee said that these conditions are one of the “biggest challenges” facing the health service.

There is a rising tide of patients who suffer from long-term conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, depression, dementia and arthritis. At the same time the number of patients who suffer from more than one long-term condition is also rapidly increasing.

Two in court over OAP death

Two people will appear in court today charged with the murder of a pensioner who was found dead in her home from serious head injuries.

The body of Cynthia Beamond, 80, was discovered following an extensive search of her semi-detached home in Howley Grange, Halesowen, on Sunday, two days after her family reported her missing.

Wage premium for fee-paying schools

Privately educated children are likely to earn almost £200,000 more during their careers than those who went to state school, according to research.

A new study suggests that a significant “wage premium” exists for those who go to fee-paying schools.

This may be down to the fact that privately educated children are more likely to get good exam results and to go to a top university, it argues.

MPs brand FGM national scandal

The failure to tackle the growing practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) in the UK is a “national scandal” that has resulted in the preventable abuse of thousands of girls, a committee of MPs has said.

In a hard-hitting report, the Commons Home Affairs Committee said FGM may be one of the most prevalent forms of “severe physical child abuse” taking place in Britain, with an estimated 65,000 girls under the age of 13 at risk.

While the practice has been outlawed in Britain since 1985, the first prosecution only took place this year - days before the Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders was due to appear before the committee.

Panorama lost army unit data

Files containing highly sensitive information about a secretive British Army unit in Northern Ireland were lost by the BBC’s investigative Panorama programme, it was claimed.

The data related to soldiers from the Military Reaction Force (MRF), an elite unit which is alleged to have shot unarmed civilians in Northern Ireland during the Troubles in the early 1970s, according to the Independent.

The information was reportedly among separate material downloaded from an online cache on to a memory stick and handed by an inexperienced Panorama researcher to a third party, in protest at the way the BBC programme was handling a documentary about politics in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.